Home made decaf coffee

Making your own coffee blend is just like any other unwritten family recipe, thought and learned through daily life of preparing food and beverage. A mother would showed their daughter how to picked, clean then roasted the coffee bean until finally the beans and the filler which usually consist of roasted rice, corn and coconut had to be ground using the mortar.

In my family we have our personal favorite blends and today lucky for me my auntie running out her coffee stock.

So let's go to her Porch! 

(This is her,already roasting the filler which are rice and coconut flakes)

The measurement for her is 1 kg of whole robusta coffee beans, 2 kilos of rice and 2 medium coconut chopped. The recipe for making this homemade decaf coffee is as personal as its gets, my auntie Lusi is the heavy coffee drinker on the mild side meaning she used more filler to the coffee beans.lets check her recipe shall we !

First She washed the dried whole coffee beans

Chopped the coconut into small cubes 

She mixed the coconut and the uncooked rice inside the wok and roasted them in open fire, constantly stirring them to even out the roasting process.

After about 35-45 minutes the rice and coconut mixture starting to turn black almost burn.

This is the final stage of the filler roasting 

Then she roasted the coffee bean just like the fillers.

After almost 1 hour of constantly stirring the coffee start to roasted evenly almost charcoal looking, the fragrant was so enticing it's bring the neighbor by, as she sits and stirred the coffee In front of her porch the few of the neighbor start to gather and exchanging jokes talking about their kids, the recipe and exchanging knowledge just about anything. This is my favorite part having casual conversation and bonding between family and friends.

Even my four years old eager to learn how to ground the coffee using the mortar! I'm on my way to handing him the family recipe ! So stoke about that ! 

After all the ingredient are ready the next . 

And let the pounding begin! The consistency of the coffee also very personal, I like mine coarse and my auntie likes her to be medium grind. To achieve medium even finer grind we have to shift the coffee mixture in between the grounding process 

My personal favorite consistency, very course, I love the bits of coffee grains floating about my cup.

I love the challenge of shorting out the coffee bits before I took a sip, or bitting and chewing a few persistence bit that refused to stay in the cup. 

Nothing better than a fresh cup of homemade decaf coffee in the middle of the day, while we all sit back, gossiping about the soap opera, or what to cook the next day or just a trying to reminiscing the day past.

Melani key 

Spiced coffee

I mention on the previous blog about ordering two coffee at the legi pahit cafe. The second one is called kopi rempah or spiced coffee. hesitantly i asked the barista what is this coffee all about, he explained the medicinal benefit of the coffee and the strong flavor is the mainly reason people order them, so i order one and hope for the best ! , I'm not going lied i have a doubt about this one, I'm worry that the spice would be too strong and overpower the coffee, and its not helping that the only  flavor coffee i ever had was hazelnut and almond. Needless  to say i was less adventurous with my coffee, hence the purpose of this blog is taking coffee adventure with you guys right ??

         (These are the spices they used with my coffee. Cardamom, cinnamon and clove)

(Four pieces of cardamom a pinch of dried cloves and about teaspoon of cinnamon bark ) 

(Three teaspoon of fresh ground 100% robusta coffee on top then pour in boiling water. Let it brew and bubble up for a minute, much like making kopi Tubruk.)

  

Three teaspoonful of palm sugar to sweeten, mix it around and I'm ready to explore.

the minute i inhale the aroma i was still little hesitated but i can't deny the blend of the coffee and spices is so enticing,the aroma was so rich, earthy and bright remained me of morning with my grand father before harvesting the rice him shirtless sipping coffee out . and at the first sip all those hesitation vanish... replaced by the flavor explosion assaulted my taste bud. initially the cardamom seems to stand out amongst other spices flavor, but as soon as the coffee left your mouth i can taste almost immediately the sweetness of the cinnamon and the spiciness of the cloves,yet the nuttiness of the palm sugar is still present just enough for me to tasted. with this explosion of spices i expected to loose the coffee strong character, but just like the christmas tree and its ornament the spiced just highlighted the coffee further more. and after the second sip i was lost in the lush jungle and valley of Indonesia. this coffee is  everything about Indonesia, earthy, spicy, strong yet smooth and warm...

Im so glad i tried this spiced coffee and hopefully you will too..

cheers
melani 

Coffee and I

I am not a barista or coffee expert either, I decide to make this blog after visiting my grand father village after 15 year living on the island of Guam USA. As I stood under the coffee tree behind his house I can't help but to remember this trees has been growing there longer than I have been living in this world. My childhood memories consist of me playing around this rows of coffee trees hanging from it branches listening to the story my grand father told about his life.

(Just like before only 120 lbs heavier)

His family is amongst the many Indonesia hard laborer or the slaves for the Dutch East Indies company, his job is to tend the coffee plantation and the coffee mills. Until one day the Japanese took over and ended the over 350 years of the Dutch occupations. After the Dutch and the Japanese long gone he kept the trees growing and continued to raised and harvest them until he passed away 18 years ago.

    ( One of the many coffee tree at grandpa )

I remember in many of those stories he told,he mention about the kopi luwak

Or chivet coffee, as all we know it recently kopi luwak has become the new exotic coffee and sold at lucrative price.but back than drinking kopi luwak is the farcry of drinking kopi luwak today.he told me That The only way the pribumi or the native Indonesian able to drink coffee is the beans they collected off of the chivet poop,since they weren't allowed to drink the coffee harvested from the plantation.

(The coffee still producing after all those years)

For our culture drinking coffee isn't just a boost of caffeine in the morning to start a day, but a way of life, we drink coffee during gathering much as  drinking a beer during the barbecue or ball games for American, we serve our guests coffee in any time of the day,we drink coffee to rit of headache and fatigue  we honors our late ancestor with coffee offering during holy days or special ceremony.

 I remember my grand ma asked me to take a dry mixture of ground coffee and sugar to avoid motion sickness before long car ride, unfortunately I can't remember wether it helps me or not I was barely 6 years old . There is no such things as too young to drink coffee for us my mother told me that when baby given a spoonful of coffee every now and then it will prevent them from having seizure during fever. At some point my family used coffee residue as soap substitute.

Most importantly coffee has connect me to my heritage, my family and the memories of my grand parents. 

And there are many ways of preparing and serving coffee within my culture and through this blog I'm determined to discover them and share it with you guys 

Let's have one heck of caffeine induce experience !! 

☕️

Mkey

Kopi Tubruk

The most common method the Indonesian people prepare their coffee is called kopi Tubruk
The word Tubruk means crash or comes in contact with such force. this no bullshit attitude of making coffee is the simplest method there is just pour hot water into already measured coffee let it steep for a minute and  serve
today i visited one of hidden coffee shop in my city called cafe legi pahit, the cafe name is just the epitome of how coffee should be, sweet and bitter. the cafe was literally open in someones home , there is no professional cafe lay out other than rows of wooden chair made out of recycle crate woods and the regular living room furnishing, friends gathers over a cup of coffee and exchanging story joking and laughing over the veranda, definitely very intimate and homey. the prep kitchen consist of small bar a gas stove, hot water dispenser and a fridge next to the credit card machine and cashier desk, very intimate and simple.
i decided to order straight up robusta kopi tubruk  and indonesian spiced coffee. straight up out of their kitchen/bar/counter,  

 Bayu The barista, pouring boiling water straight into the cup containing three teaspoon of 100% roasted and coarsly grind robusta coffee, the hot water immidietly brew the coffee within contact without overly cooking it

After a few minutes the mixture of bubbles and coffee starts to rise creating a dome of flavor overflowing on top of the cup, whilst the hot water continued to brew the coffee to perfection. Gradually three layer of coffee start to appear within the glass cup. the bottom layer is the more fine grind with the consistency of soft mud, then the middle is part is the coffee liquid and lastly the more coarsely bits of coffee rise up and floated on top.

about 5 minutes or so latter the coffee begun to settles and the dome created by the bubble rising during the brewing process starts to collapsed a bit, there is one  more ritual that only the true coffee drinker understand, even i didn't understand them until i saw my brother pick up the cup and lightly drop it on top of the table and essentially tap the bottom of the cup to settles the mounting bubbles further more.

instead of conventional coffee mix such as creamer, milk, hazelnut or almond flavoring the barista gave me three choices of sugars ;palm sugar, regular sugar cane and rock sugar to sweeten my coffee, each one of the sugar gives the coffee underline flavor, without overpowering it, leaves the coffee flavor to be the highlight of the beverage.

the palm sugar gives hint of nutty flavor just enough, uncharge the coffee flavor  and the rock sugar gives more subtle sweetness after taste and believes to have a medicinal benefits, the cain sugar, however just like the blank canvas for my coffee, only add some sweetness and let me enjoy the full flavor of the coffee uninterrupted.

This methods of serving coffee will brings a unique experience of drinking coffee, since there is no pressing or straining in the process you can't help but to drink the residue of coffee bean floating about your cup.you can't help sip along quite bit amount of coarsely ground bean while you drink the coffee, you may chew than eat them or like many Indonesian just spit it out.

my husband hate this last episode of drinking kopi tubruk, he dislike the feeling of bits and pieces of the bean in his mouth, he always thought that they were on his way, i can understand him, his been spoil by kitchenaid coffee maker. But for us this is the art of drinking coffee, the bits and pieces of the beans floating around the cup then some in your mouth is just part of the experience.